Ninth-seeded Masco boys tennis team upsets top-seeded North Andover

Wednesday

Jun 7, 2017 at 9:59 PMJun 7, 2017 at 11:57 PM

Joshua Boyd jboyd@wickedlocal.com

After a few days under the pall of mist and wind-driven rain, the whole world felt reborn on June 7.

If you looked up from the courts at North Andover High School, there was nary a cloud in the sky to be found. Both the Scarlet Knights and their guests and historic rivals the Masconomet Chieftains were excited to get back to some good old tennis.

North Andover came in as the No. 1 seed, off a 14-2 regular season in the Merrimack Valley Conference. Masconomet came in off a 9-5 regular season, taking the No. 9 seed and ousting slightly higher-seeded Beverly in the first round on June 3.

On paper, it looked all Scarlet Knights. But tennis is not played on paper. In the end, the Chieftains continued their road tournament win streak, defeating the Scarlet Knights by a 4-1 score.

It looked like it would be a marathon from the start. At first singles, the Scarlet Knights’ Adit Baruah and Masco’s Nick Marshall went toe-to-toe, with Marshall holding a 5-4 lead at one point, before Baruah peeled off three games for the 7-5 first set.

Baruah outlasted Marshall in the end, defeating the Masco senior by a 6-2 second set score.

"Nick played well against a strong opponent. The first set could've gone either way and that was the difference in the match," said head coach Matt Nardone. "Nick and Max [Gordon] are our leaders and they have done a great job and more than held their own in taking on our opponents' best players every match."

The second singles spot seemed like it was Sean Pfordresher’s time to shine. He sat with a 3-0 lead early in the first set, but after a conversation with Masco head coach Matt Nardone, Gordon returned to the base line a changed man.

Gordon ripped through six straight games for a 6-3 lead. He was down 3-0 to Pfordresher yet again in Set 2, and the two near-identical players pushed it to a tiebreaker at 6-6. Gordon yet again rose to the occasion, winning the tiebreaker 7-3, and earning one of Masco’s four victories.

By the time he was done, however, Haolan Zhan already defeated North Andover’s Will Comerford, 6-4, 6-1. Jake Wogan and Marshall Lastes were the first off the courts for Masco, beating North Andover’s Tommy and Justin Holland, 6-2, 6-1.

"Our freshman pair at second doubles are starting to play with a lot of confidence and easily won their second straight tournament match," said Masco head coach Matt Nardone.

The only three-setter of the day saw the Scarlet Knights’ Andrew Samost and Michal Hickerson win the first set, but fall in the next two against Kole Kosakowski and Kaylen Rivers. That latter duo sealed up the final score at 4-1, winning 3-6, 6-4, 6-2.

"Kole Kosakowski has a season record of 10-4 and dominated the net again in this match. He made several key volleys and had a handful of huge overheads. Kole has one of the best overheads in the league and when he hits them they rarely come back," Nardone said.

"Both second singles and second doubles could have gone the other way," said North Andover veteran head coach Paul Bergesen.

Masco carries on to face another upstart lower seed, Belmont. The No. 12 seed Marauders went 9-7 in the Middlesex League, and they’ve defeated the No. 5 seed Marblehead and the No. 4 seed Lynn Classical, both on the road. Now, they’re coming to Masco’s courts on Thursday to try to figure out who will face either No. 2 Winchester or No. 3 Wayland for a trophy.

As for the Scarlet Knights, they close out a 14-2 season that showed a ton of promise from the start, but just came up short at the wrong time.

"The team played well, we just fell short by a few points," said Bergesen, who has maintained all season that this was one of his greatest teams ever. "Our four seniors combined for 94 individual wins over four years, and 45 team wins, an amazing accomplishment. The team felt they had one of the best seasons, and we can't wait until 2018."